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I have to say that the most fun I've had at Quilting Arts so far--and I've had a lot of fun--is the parfait ice fabric dyeing party the QA team organized for everyone in our Sudbury office. Cate's first-time dyeing results. You can do it, too. Not only was it exciting to watch the ice-dyed...
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Sometimes an idea for surface design is so simple, you wonder why you never thought of it before. That's how I felt when I first saw Rose Hughes' tutorial on using crayons — the kind kids use, nothing fancy-as a resist method with fabric paint. Fabric painting with crayon resist by Rose...
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Batik is one of the oldest methods of dyeing fabrics for surface design. Using hot liquid wax as a resist for dye, batik yields beautiful patterns and rich colors. But traditional batik is time-consuming and labor intensive. But what if you could learn how to batik without the hassles? In this free eBook...
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Fabric designed with baby rice cereal, by Lisa Kerpoe. Now that I'm all moved in down here in Houston, I'm ready to get cooking on some fabric dyeing and other surface design techniques. Although the weather here is relatively warm and sunny, it's too cold for outdoor dyeing (for me, anyway...
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The Quilting Arts/Cloth Paper Scissors crew and my quilt full of surface-design love. On this Thanksgiving Day I am in transition. I'm settling into my new Houston digs in preparation for my fresh adventure with Quilts Inc. while still consulting for Quilting Arts and preparing for the next season...
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A sampling of prints made with DIY mark-making tools. I'm going to ask you a question and I want you to give me an honest answer. When choosing among items at a grocery store, have you ever selected one over the other based solely on how you could use the packaging to create surface design ? You...
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Fabric designed with baby rice cereal, by Lisa Kerpoe. I just love to design my own fabric. Sometimes, I love it so much, I get all mushy. That's when you'll find me whipping up resists in the kitchen using mashed potato flakes, oatmeal, or even rice cereal for babies. I learned these resist...
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I confess, if I didn't love Quilting Arts so much, I'd throw in the towel and spend all of my time painting and dyeing fabric . You see, some day when I finally grow up, I want to be Jane Dunnewold (or Kerr Grabowski). I save any kind of surface design work for the summer when I can work outside...
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There's an old joke, from well before my time, that is still around because it's a classic. An elderly gentleman is walking down the street in New York City. A younger man steps up to him and asks, "Excuse me, sir, but how do I get to Carnegie Hall?" To which the older man replies:...
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Last week we asked our Facebook fans to share with us one of their blog entries in hopes of becoming the first Quilting Arts Facebook blogger of the week. There were so many great blogs that were posted it was nearly impossible to choose one! in the end, however, Pippa Eccles and I decided to pick Susan...
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Isn't it funny how sometimes the simplest of art processes can be so satisfying? I mean, you know I love my Thermofax screen printing and I am a sucker for hand embroidery. Thread sketching fascinates me and I never get tired of dyeing. But when it comes to hands-down fun, I have to go with stamping...
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Many communicate with their loved ones overseas through letters or care packages, but when Pat Hamlin’s son was serving with the Montana National Guard in Bagdad, she kept in touch with him through a quilt. Each week that he was away (52 altogether), Pat created a 6"-square block which she...
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I like to think I'm always open to trying new things, especially when it comes to surface design methods. But there was one technique I shied away from: batik. I loved the effects, but doing it myself always seemed so complicated and time consuming. That was until Kathy York was a guest on "Quilting...
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One of the most exciting ways to change the look of fabric is through resist dyeing techniques. Resist-dyeing is one of the oldest ways to transform cloth, used the world over. These methods are exciting, because they are unpredictable-perfect if you're a person who likes to play, because each time...